Patients

Interest in ketamine therapy for treating depression is exploding in the UK (Ryan & Loo, 2017), and there is a push to make this treatment available free of charge as part of their public health system.

Thousands of people with severe depression could obtain urgent relief if ketamine therapy were made more widely available, UK medical experts say. (1)

“Ketamine is a powerful drug, and we wouldn’t advocate widespread use for preventing or reducing PTSD symptoms,” said study leader Christine A. Denny, PhD, assistant professor of clinical neurobiology in Psychiatry at Columbia.

However, he went to say that in the future ketamine may be used much like a vaccine, given prophylactically to individuals at high-risk of developing PTSD.

“But if our results in mice translate to humans, giving a single dose of ketamine in a vaccine-like fashion could have great benefit for people who are highly likely to experience significant stressors, such as members of the military or aid workers going into conflict zones.”